Description

The Visit of the Gypsies, also known as The Fortune Teller, is a large-scale woven tapestry that portrays multiple aspects of late medieval courtly culture. The flatness of forms, static poses of human figures and animals, compressed space, and nonnaturalistic foliage are characteristic of the Gothic style, which flourished from the 1100s to the 1500s. The crowded and lively scene is represented as a continuous narrative, meaning that multiple episodes taking place at different times and in separate spaces are collapsed into a single composition.

In the background, a hunt is depicted in several stages. From upper left to lower right, these are the announcement of the hunt by a man blowing a horn, the hunting and killing of a deer, and the presentation of a hare and a leg of venison to the lord and lady of the castle. Three additional castles appear in the hilly landscape. A group of Gypsies, who enter the scene in the left foreground, are starkly contrasted with the nobles, who wear rich clothing and demonstrate refined behavior. The seated Gypsy woman holding an infant reveals her bare feet, while the Gypsy child to the right of her is busy stealing a noblewoman’s purse. Behind them, at the center of the composition, an elderly Gypsy woman reads the fortune of an elegantly dressed young woman. The entire scene is set against a decorative backdrop of foliage and animals. Although the plants and creatures are rendered in a stylized, flattened manner, their variety and specificity reflect Northern European artists’ interest in carefully observing and documenting the natural world.


Context and Analysis

Many Gothic tapestries were commissioned for aristocratic residences, where they were hung on walls alongside paintings. These costly luxury objects, made of silk, wool, and threads of precious metals, not only advertised the wealth of their owners, but also provided welcome insulation during the cold, harsh winters. This particular tapestry was woven in Tournai, a major center of tapestry production in the first half of the 1500s. The life of the Gypsies and other exotic subjects were very popular among Tournai weavers. Gypsies often appear in scenes of caravans and savage hunts, reflecting the European taste for the foreign and the exotic during the age of exploration.

The coat of arms at the upper border of this tapestry belongs to the d’Effiat family. In the 1600s the tapestry hung in their castle at Clermont-Ferrand in the Loire Valley of France. By the end of the 1600s, Gothic art had fallen out of style, and paintings and other, more portable luxury arts became more popular than tapestries. As a result, many Gothic tapestries were cut into pieces and used as rugs or melted down in order to extract their valuable silver and gold thread.

Written by Nadia Baadj

Bibliography

Cavallo, Adolfo Salvatore. Medieval Tapestries in the Metropolitan Museum of Art. New York: Metropolitan Museum of Art, 1993.

Comstock, Helen. The Connoisseur (October 1937): 208–9.

Delmarcel, Guy. Flemish Tapestry. Translated by Alastair Weir. New York: Abrams, 2000.

“A Tournai Tapestry.” Currier Gallery of Art Bulletin (February 1948).

“Visit of the Gypsies.” Currier Gallery of Art Bulletin (January 1950).